Pulse Ducker: free sidechain ducking, no routing headaches
Sidechain ducking usually means routing buses and fiddling with compressor sidechain inputs. Pulse Ducker from j.mp3 labs skips all of that: it's a free volume-shaping plugin where you pick one of 16 ducking curves, lock it to your host tempo, and get that pumping pad sound going without setting up an actual sidechain.
Version 1.2.0 just added lookahead (up to 20ms), draggable envelopes and user presets. You drag the curve itself on screen for depth, slope and length, trigger it from MIDI notes or an audio feed, and it defaults to zero added latency. VST3 on Mac, Windows and Linux (beta), plus AU on Mac. Free for any use.
Get it free here: https://jamesmp3.com/labs/pulse-ducker
Spotted via Bedroom Producers Blog
0
0
0.000
Sixteen ducking curves and draggable envelopes beat fiddling with a compressor sidechain, the lookahead addition is a smart one.
Lookahead on a ducker is the difference between transparent and clicky, definitely the right feature to single out.
A slow structural failure instead of a bang is a great concept for a track, and the grinding low end sells exactly that.